Regional Boards > International Highways

Question about passing on the right on the Autobahn

(1/7) > >>

bugo:
From what I understand it's illegal to pass on the right on the Autobahn.  What happens if you are driving along at say 75 MPH and come across somebody parked in the left lane going 55?  Do you legally have to slow down to his speed?  I know left lane blocking is also illegal, but what would be the legal thing to do in this situation?

Yesterday I was driving down a freeway with a 70 MPH speed limit.  I came upon a truck camped out in the left lane going about 60.  I got behind him, he wouldn't budge, so I passed him on the right, then got right in front of him and slowed down to about 55.  He finally got mad and got in the right lane, so I quickly sped up to 75.  It's sad that you have to do that to get other drivers to drive properly in this country.  And there are anti-LLB laws in Oklahoma, they're just not enforced.

shoptb1:

--- Quote from: bugo on February 12, 2010, 07:48:10 PM ---From what I understand it's illegal to pass on the right on the Autobahn.  What happens if you are driving along at say 75 MPH and come across somebody parked in the left lane going 55?  Do you legally have to slow down to his speed?  I know left lane blocking is also illegal, but what would be the legal thing to do in this situation?

Yesterday I was driving down a freeway with a 70 MPH speed limit.  I came upon a truck camped out in the left lane going about 60.  I got behind him, he wouldn't budge, so I passed him on the right, then got right in front of him and slowed down to about 55.  He finally got mad and got in the right lane, so I quickly sped up to 75.  It's sad that you have to do that to get other drivers to drive properly in this country.  And there are anti-LLB laws in Oklahoma, they're just not enforced.

--- End quote ---

Man, I feel your frustration.   While I lived in Germany, I never really faced this issue for a couple of reasons.  On non-congested roads, German drivers are very well-trained about staying out of the left-hand lane.  The left-hand lane is for passing only, and you can literally get yourself killed by much faster-paced vehicles.  If you do find someone in the left-hand lane and you wish to pass, Germans will honk their horns and flash their lights...and I've found that they are quite insistent on the person moving...as camping in the left-hand lane can be reported as a highly-fined offense to the Autobahnpolizei.  However, passing on the right-hand side is HIGHLY ILLEGAL and can get one's driver's license revoked.  Considering that the average German driver's license costs about $2,000 to attain...it's not worth the gamble.  Also, consider that the typical German driver is far more skilled at driving and versed in the laws than their American counterparts; mainly because it is a requirement in Germany to receive about 40 hours of professional driving instruction.  (part of the $2,000)

I remember the frustration I experienced upon returning to the US and the ignorant way that people just plant themselves in the left-hand lane, oblivious to the road (and world) around them.  Even though it's illegal...it's never enforced.  What's even more frustrating is that it seems that some drivers think that it's their prerogative to enforce the speed limits by sitting in the left-hand lane, when the truth is that this is also illegal. 

I know that I would be in support of tougher requirements to attain a driver's license in the US; but then again, until we have a much more widely-available public transit system here similar to Europe...driving in many areas is a requirement and not a luxury like it is in Europe.  This is the reason that I believe that the rules are more relaxed here, and I'm not sure that I see that changing in the near future :-(

Chris:
It's illegal to pass on the right in all European countries, except where they drive on the left (U.K., Ireland) of course.

I have to add Germans don't unnecessary drive in the left lane like you see in the United States. Automobiles are usually not going slower than 70 - 75 mph in the left lane, unless there's a reason for it. If somebody passes a truck, they will swing to the left just before they pass the truck, stay in the left lane as short as possible, and immediately swing to the right once they have passed the truck. No unnecessary left-lane banditry.

Although you do have the occasional left-lane hogger who wants to overtake a bunch of trucks driving further apart, it's very unlikely they do that at 55 mph. More like 75 or 80 mph.

I have to add most Germans don't drive as fast as they used to. Traffic volumes, and truck volumes in particular have picked up dramatically in the past 10 years, so most people don't exceed 90 - 95 mph. Only on very quiet Autobahns, you have people doing 100 - 120 mph.

By the way, trucks are forbidden to drive on Sundays (except perishable goods), so that's the most relaxing day to drive. You can just hang in the right lane at 75 - 80 mph for miles without having the need to pass a bunch of trucks. If I plan to drive across all of Germany (for example to Austria or Switzerland), I try to do this on Sundays.

J N Winkler:
I have had some experience with driver licensing and training in Britain, so I have to disagree respectfully with the suggestion that a German-style driver licensing system be adopted in the US.  In fact, IRTAD 1998 data suggests that the German fatality rate on motorways (deaths per billion vehicle km) is only about 10% lower than ours despite the much more stringent licensing procedures.  For that matter, countries like France, Spain, and Portugal have traditionally had higher fatality rates on motorways than Britain (which has had the EEA's lowest fatality rate for a long time) despite somewhat more rigorous training procedures which include mandated professional driving instruction.  In general, EEA countries have driving tests which are far more strict than those used in nearly all US states with the exception of California, yet our own motorway fatality rate is in the middle of the spread of theirs.  More than twice as many people die on the Autobahnen per billion vehicle km than die on British motorways despite the fact that Britain does not have a professional driving instruction requirement.

It has been my experience that driver licensing systems as rigorous as those used in Europe tend to breed drivers with a strong sense of entitlement--i.e., "If I can see that you are not driving in accord with the recommended best practice, I am entitled to teach you a lesson."  This is totally contrary to the mantra of defensive driving, hazard perception, and always leaving yourself an "out" which we try to stress in formal driver instruction in the US.  Obviously the European system does set a fairly high threshold of motor and cognitive skill which new drivers have to cross--there is no question of people being licensed when they are barely able to operate the controls, as happens with brand-new drivers in many US states--but the attitude of entitlement inevitably claws back some of the safety benefits of the more thorough training.  And in general European driving tests have historically been weak on hazard perception, although this aspect has been beefed up in Norway, Sweden, and Britain (the last two of which are, together with the Netherlands and Switzerland, the EEA leaders in road safety).

Some other considerations:

*  I think our problem with fast-lane crawling in the US results less from lack of driver socialization and more from the police relying on speed not just as a revenue source but also as the marker for other driving problems.  This encourages drivers to "fly under the radar" by attempting overtaking maneuvers on very low speed differentials.  There is a case to be made for following the California example of putting about the word that the police will generally leave you alone if you speed up (even if it is above the speed limit) to complete an overtaking maneuver, but squash you like a bug if you unreasonably delay someone else attempting a similar maneuver.

*  I sympathize with the intent behind KRETP laws, but I think they are ineffective.  The problem is that speeding violations are generally strict liability, while it is a matter of individual judgment whether fast-lane crawling is causing undue inconvenience to other drivers.  In situations where completion of an overtaking maneuver would mean exceeding the speed limit, it puts police officers in the invidious position of pulling over drivers for not facilitating third parties' violations of the law.  Also, how do you determine whether someone in the left lane is unreasonably delaying someone else who wants to pass?  Do you declare that person to be imposing unreasonable delay if a following vehicle has to change speed or position to "wait" to pass?  What if the following vehicle had not initiated its own overtaking maneuver before the first vehicle had started to overtake?  What if the first vehicle has almost completed the overtaking maneuver (i.e., passed the slower car and left almost a two-second following distance in front of it) when the following vehicle speeds up the first vehicle's tailpipe:  is it legally required to cut the overtaken vehicle off by pulling in too early?  Returning to the generalities of the issue, there is also a lot of potential mischief in making left-lane blocking a strict liability offense, defining it as one that occurs whenever a following vehicle has to change speed to wait to pass, and thus giving the driver of the offending vehicle an incentive to drive far faster than he or she feels comfortable with just to avoid being nailed for speeding and blocking the left lane.

*  Making overtaking on the wrong side (or "undertaking" as it is sometimes called in Britain) a strict liability offense has its own problems in congested traffic (LOS E on an urban motorway, for example), since the fast lane may very well be moving more slowly than the other lanes at any given time.  This is one reason why (IIRC) undertaking is not an offense per se in Britain and the Highway Code notes that it is often unavoidable in queues.

*  I agree it is a pleasure to share the road with other drivers who know what they are doing--things move along very fluidly.  But such situations do not occur that often.  I have found it is easier to drive defensively if I say to myself, "What adjustments to my driving do I need to make to accommodate the capabilities the other drivers are demonstrating?" rather than, "Why is everyone else so bad?"  This approach is not foolproof--for example, I still get irritated by people who insist at driving at 80 MPH in an urban 60 and changing multiple lanes at a time so they can pass slower cars on either side--but even then it does reduce stress.

J N Winkler:

--- Quote from: Chris on February 13, 2010, 05:19:20 AM ---By the way, trucks are forbidden to drive on Sundays (except perishable goods), so that's the most relaxing day to drive. You can just hang in the right lane at 75 - 80 mph for miles without having the need to pass a bunch of trucks. If I plan to drive across all of Germany (for example to Austria or Switzerland), I try to do this on Sundays.
--- End quote ---

The other side of the coin is that the EU mandates differential speed limits for trucks and the percentage of freight that goes by road in the EU is much larger than in the US.  This means that the right-hand lane (or far left-hand lane in countries where traffic circulates on the left) is often a no-go area for cars.  In the US some states have differential speed limits while others don't, and a FHWA study several years ago on the benefit to safety of differential speed limits was unable to produce a conclusive result.  My personal impression is that in states which have differential limits and well-defined truck corridors (California and I-5 in the Central Valley come to mind), the differential leads to severe driver frustration (especially when trucks attempt to overtake on microscopic differences in speed) and possibly deleterious effects on safety as well.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page